How to recover data from a dead phone: 5 methods worth trying

Backing up data from your phone is relatively easy these days. Whether it’s text messages, photos and other media, or even your important documents and PDFs, a number of wireless transfer solutions like Google Drive, OneDrive, or iCloud have you covered. If nothing else, you can also plug in a USB cable between your Android smartphone or iPhone and a computer to transfer files over, or if you’re on the move, a flash drive. Unfortunately, none of these methods are helpful if your phone is dead.

Since both wired and wireless file transfers need smartphones to be turned on and, in some cases, unlocked to get data out of it, data from a dead phone can’t be salvaged the same way. So how exactly do you get your data from a dead phone? Here are a few methods you can try out.

How to recover data from dead phone

There are multiple ways to recover data from a dead phone. These are as follows.

1. Charge the phone
2. Check your cloud storage
3. Remove the SD card
4. Replace the dead components
5. Salvage the storage from your motherboard

1. Charge the phone

Not all dead phones translate to irreversibly dead internal components. Sometimes, your smartphones may have simply run out of battery. This can be fixed by simply charging the phone from a supported charging adapter or a power bank. Once the phone has enough charge, you can turn it on and then use any wireless or wired file sharing method to extract your data.

2. Check your cloud storage

Many smartphones are set (sometimes by default) to backup important data like contacts, messages and media to a designated cloud storage. This may be iCloud for iPhones, or Google Drive for many Android phones. If your phone is dead, use a laptop or another device to check your cloud storage folders for any backed-up files and media. Chances are some (if not most) of your data may be backed-up before the phone died.

3. Remove the SD Card

If your smartphone came with an SD card slot, chances are you must have been using it to store some of your files or media. While recovering the rest of your phone may not be very simple, recovering data from your SD card is very easy. Simply remove the SD card from the phone and put in in another phone or tether it to a laptop via a card reader to quickly copy the data on it.

4. Replace the dead components

Getting into the more technical solutions to recovering data from a dead phone, the first approach is to replace the dead components that are preventing your phone from booting. This is the first thing technicians will try to do at an authorised service centre or any other repair shop.

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If the cause of your phone not booting is a faulty battery or motherboard, replacing the same (while keeping your eMMC or UFS storage drive intact) should allow your phone to boot, making the data available again. However, this can be a costly affair depending on the type and number of components that are damaged and need replacement.

5. Salvage the storage drive from your motherboard

A last resort if all you want is the data from the phone (and not the phone itself) is removing the eMMC or UFS storage drive from your phone, something you can do on some smartphones. This small storage drive, a part of your motherboard, is the equivalent of the HDD/SSD in a desktop, which can be connected in any other desktop to access the data in it.

Similarly, if a trained technician can remove the storage drive from your dead motherboard, it can be temporarily attached to another working motherboard and system, allowing access to the data in it, which can then be copied/transferred to wherever you desire.

Those are the five methods you can try when trying to recover data from a dead smartphone. Note that some of these methods are only for trained technicians, and attempting to fiddle with the motherboard, storage drives or any other internal component of your smartphone may lead to further, permanent damage and loss of data if you don’t know what you’re doing. Always seek help from a professional for these methods.